I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few years studying heroes, and what our cultural heroes say about society. Much is made of gritty vs. fun, Man of Steel vs. Guardians of the Galaxy. But one thing that is often overlooked is the importance of parody superheroes to this discussion. I think that that parodies serve just as much as a dismantling of the superhero archetype as anything Frank Miller wrote. Not to belabor this too much, but clearly the people behind these parodies were commenting on the pervasive hero-worship of characters like Supes and Cap, and often jabbing the broodiness of Batman and Punisher. There is also a very real message in many of these books: normal people can be heroes, too.

So here’s a by-no-means exhaustive list of some superhero parodies—be sure to join the discussion in the comments!

Welcome to The YA Roundup, the best source of movie news, bookish gossip, new releases, and cover reveals from the YA genre!

This week covers a new west coast YA event, a trio of hilarious Hunger Games parody songs, one famous author’s failed attempts at writing YA as a teenager, and upcoming adaptions for The Scorpio Races, Tiger’s Curse, and A Series of Unfortunate Events.

These are the voyages of the starship A.S.F. Willful Child. Its ongoing mission: to seek out strange new worlds on which to plant the Terran flag, to subjugate and if necessary obliterate new life-forms, to boldly blow the...

And so we join the not-terribly-bright but exceedingly cock-sure Captain Hadrian Sawback and his motley crew on board the Starship Willful Child for a series of devil-may-care, near-calamitous and downright chaotic adventures through ‘the infinite vastness of interstellar space.’

Willful Child is available November 11th from Tor Books. Steven Erikson—New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Malazan Book of the Fallen sequence—has taken his lifelong passion for Star Trek and transformed it into a smart, inventive, and hugely entertaining spoof on the whole mankind-exploring-space-for-the-good-of-all-species-but-trashing-stuff-with-a-lot-of-high-tech-gadgets-along-the-way, overblown adventure.

While we wait for the new Star Wars movies, Sesame Street is tapping into the original trilogy to teach us an important lesson about cookie moderation. But mostly our takeaway from this video is that Han Solo is a remorseless cannibal who would constantly be eating Chewbacca if he had the chance.

Female superheroes have no problem kicking ass in ensemble movies, but when it comes to pitching their own solo ventures, they can’t stand up to rampant Hollywood sexism about what does and doesn’t sell. That’s the premise of this funny-but-also-too-real video from the web series Adventures of Angelfire. In Angelfire’s first adventure, the redheaded crimefighter tries to pitch her life story to the big studios, only to come up against more resistance than a vengeful rogues’ gallery.

If Galaxy Quest had had a Ron Burgundy-esque character, you’d get Patrick Wilson’s mustachioed, Harvey Wallbanger-swilling captain of the 1970s-spoofing, dark interstellar comedy Space Station 76. This bleak movie, which debuted at South by Southwest earlier this year, follows the dramatic and profoundly unhappy inhabitants of the ship Omega 76.

But Wilson is not the only fun member of the crew: Liv Tyler plays the new assistant captain—you can guess how well his Burgundy-like character takes that appointment—while Matt Bomer looks to be a married cyborg with literal wandering hands. Because you can’t have a space opera without a bit of soapiness.

We weren’t sure at first, but now we want these Nacho Punch people to transform every single page of Harry Potter’s adventures into 1980s anime. From Neo-Hogsmeade to Harry’s sweet red bike to Hermione’s kitty ears, this parody is a perfect love note to both J.K. Rowling’s world and Katsuhiro Otomo’s—all that’s missing is Harry screaming “RON WEASLEYYYYY!!!” repeatedly while stuffed animals explode. And the final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort is perfect, but we don’t want to spoil it. Watch below!

As Red Delicious makes abundantly clear from the start, Siobhan Quinn the werepire has a lot of problems: monster hunting ex-priests, succubi, and her own mile-wide self-destructive streak to name a few. When her handler and keeper, Mr. B, tells her to look into the missing daughter of one of Providence’s oldest necromantic families, things do not go well, possibly because she’s no detective and possibly because there’s far more at stake than the apparent disappearance. The story that follows is, of course, of questionable provenance—as Quinn frequently reminds the reader, she lies constantly—but it is entertaining.

Red Delicious follows on the heels of 2013’s Blood Oranges (reviewed here), of which I was fairly fond. These novels are a fine balance between parodying urban fantasy and being urban fantasy: a little grim and a lot tongue-in-cheek, Quinn as narrator never allows the reader to forget for particularly long that they’re reading a book, with all of the regular fourth-wall breaking that that implies.

And she’s not particularly fond of the genre that her book falls in, either.

Over the past couple of months I have been honored and humbled to bring to the Tor community a rundown of what I consider to be the most essential stories of Classic Doctor Who (choices not greeted with universal approbation, it must be said—but what is, nowadays?). In these pages I’ve treated with the works of the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors, as well as visited with the short-lived Eighth (amongst some other special presentations), and so one might at last think my task complete. But, no!

There can never be too much discussion of Doctor Who, and so now it is my very great pleasure to move onto that most essential element of any popular science fiction show: its parodies.

The flap copy of Blood Oranges, the first novel by Caitlin R. Kiernan writing as Kathleen Tierney, reads like the copy for a fistful of other contemporary paranormal novels—if they had been put through a refracting lens and reduced to their component parts, pointing up the ridiculousness imbricated in their very terms. Siobhan Quinn, our protagonist and narrator, is a junky and an at-first-accidental “demon hunter” who gets bitten by a werewolf and a vampire in the same night; her life doesn’t really pick up from there.

Blood Oranges is a strange (and unmistakably fun) project, a parodic urban fantasy that at once vivisects the tropes of the genre as it currently stands and also employs them with vigor and a backhanded, wild immersion. Kiernan has described the trilogy that Blood Oranges begins as a sort of pause—between The Drowning Girl and the next Kiernan project, there are these books, by “Kathleen Tierney.” This is not a useless description; in fact, it makes a great deal of sense, because this is quite firmly not a Kiernan story, though Quinn’s opinions on her own genre frequently reflect those of her creator. The introductory author’s note makes that hilariously obvious.

Thanks to The Mary Sue for this one—In the battle over who’s house is greatest, we all know the truth: it’s Hufflepuff. So, in the interest of telling it like it is, some very talented people got together to make sure we all remember. Just trust us, this parody (set to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”) is lyrically solid, hilarious, and looks so darn good. And they have a dog! Who’s name is Hufflepup! We love you, Hufflepup!

Stubby the Rocket is the Tor.com mascot. Stubby was born this way, which is the way that all rockets are born.

Teddie Films recently unveiled this parody of the currently-everywhere video for Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know,” reframing the conversation to talk about the wonderful days when there were only three Star Wars movies. (This isn’t their first go-round. They’ve also done Ke$ha and Rebecca Black Star Wars parodies.)

Star Wars commentary is legion these days, but damn if this is not spot-on in every detail. Take a look above, because really, when else are you going to see George Lucas in body paint?

Stubby the Rocket is the mascot of Tor.com and knows of a planet where Gotye’s video plays non-stop everywhere. That planet? EARTH.

Okay, whoever is doing the trailers for the new Muppet movie is a genius. A genius, I say! Watch gentle fun be poked at the The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trailer. And man that song is good. Are you as stoked as Stubby and I are?

So, it has been about a week since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two left us with catharsis, regret, closure, and a vague itchy feeling between your shoulder blades you just can’t reach. What now? Well, several other bloggers have put it well, but I just wanted to add my two cents. I saw this shortly after I saw the movie, and it kind of hits home. On the same token, I’m not entirely sure I find the portrayal of Harry Potter and Geek culture amusing, but it is still a meaningful play on the already meaningful “Firework” song by Katy Perry, just with less sparkly boobs and more sparkly wands. What do you think?

On occasion, I come across a fan-made video for something that’s so ridiculous it’s impossible not to pass it along. This is a song about Star Fox, put to the tune of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” acted out by puppets with papercrafts for starships.

It’s completely ridiculous. Therefore, I share it.

Possibly, the most amusing bits are the pictures/notes hanging in the cockpits.

CollegeHumor’s Caldwell Tanner has successfully taken our collective childhood and upgraded it thanks to his Five Sci-Fi Children’s Books (none of which actually exist...yet. But they totally should).

For everyone who’s ever secretly wished they could score a copy of Horton Hears a Timelord or introduce the kids to Curious George Orwell, please enjoy the entire gallery at the above link...in the meantime, we’ll be pondering our next great literary masterpiece, Marty McFly Meets the Phantom Tollbooth.

ABC finally pulled the plug on the limping Drew Carey vehicle The Cleveland Steamers after a six-season run. Initially a mid-season replacement, it was Carey’s follow-up after the long-expected cancellation of The Drew Carey Show earlier in the year. The Cleveland Steamers reunited Carey with long-time collaborator Ryan Stiles and a multi-ethnic cast that won them an NAACP Image Award and the first cast album a Latin Grammy.

Dateline, April 1, 2008: It really was a grand announcement. Not since the world premiere of the world-wide epic film of Alan Moore’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen had so many gathered in steampunk costumes to parade in front of the world-wide media. Three hundred people in costumes, another hundred in suits, and a few in full-blown tuxedos. They mingled with a crowd of a few thousand in the parking lot that had served as a FEMA staging ground in New Orleans for more than a year. Fake Cockney, western, German, and other accents mingled with the Louisiana banter. The attendees wore bright vests, fanciful pocket watches, pinstripes, corsets, bowlers, bustles, and goggles—always goggles. At exactly three o’clock, several costumed men and women with large, fanciful guns made their way up to the massive, temporary stage. The people in suits got the chairs. The costumed folk had to stand, the sweat starting to show around the collars of some of the gentlemen. Towering above them was the entry sign that once greeted drivers coming to Six Flags New Orleans. Mayor-for-Life Ray Nagin took the podium at 3:07 PM.

Here are two short reviews of entertaining and entirely dissimilar takes on science.

Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants

It’s been said a million times that They Might Be Giants has always written children’s songs for adults, so it’s no surprise that they are good at writing children’s songs for children. I don’t entirely agree with that sentiment, since some of their songs in no way speak to children’s experiences. I suggest you listen to “They’ll Need a Crane,” if you don’t concur. That song is not for children, except perhaps if you want to give a kid a musical explanation for why Daddy’s been sleeping on the couch.

I picked up Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (henceforth called PPZ) on a lark. The concept of marrying Jane Austen’s story to one of today’s most favourite literary trends sounded like an exercise in being clever. Although for some, “being clever” is tantamount to “being a jerk,” I generally have more trust in my fellow creatures than that, and looked forward to a thoroughly enjoyable read.